Polygon Foundation said the Giugliano hard fork is scheduled for April 8 at around 2:00 PM UTC, targeting block 85,268,500. The upgrade is centered on two changes: faster transaction finality and a new way of handling fee data. It sits within Polygon PoS’s broader Gigagas roadmap, which is focused on raising speed and efficiency across the network.
Earlier block signaling is expected to trim finality by about two seconds
According to the foundation, the upgrade lets block producers signal blocks earlier. The practical effect is a shorter path to irreversibility for transactions, which should improve confirmation speed across the chain. Tests on the Amoy testnet showed finality dropping by roughly two seconds. The gain is incremental, but for applications that depend on quick settlement, such as trading venues and payment systems, a small reduction in wait time can matter.
This hard fork is not a redesign of the system. Polygon is refining existing processes rather than replacing core architecture, keeping with its pattern of gradual performance upgrades. The emphasis here is narrow and operational: finality and fee visibility.
Fee parameters will be embedded in headers for easier protocol-level access
Giugliano also changes fee management. The network will place fee parameters directly into block headers, making that information available at the protocol level. For developers, that means a cleaner route to cost data and less application-side complexity.
Polygon added that new RPC capabilities will make fee data easier to retrieve. That can help teams estimate transaction costs with less overhead and fine-tune user flows in apps that regularly surface gas costs or dynamic pricing.
Node operators need updated software before activation
Node operators must upgrade ahead of the fork. Validators are required to run Bor 2.7.0 or Erigon 3.5.0. Nodes that do not update could fall out of sync once the fork is activated.
Within the Gigagas roadmap, Giugliano is one step in a larger scaling sequence. Polygon is targeting about 1,000 transactions per second by July, along with finality close to five seconds and more stable fees. The next milestone is more than 5,000 TPS by October, with Agglayer integration intended to support stronger cross-chain liquidity.
CoinGecko data cited in the report shows Polygon activity stayed steady through 2025, with average monthly transactions at about 119 million and active users ranging from 6 million to 8 million. Activity picked up late in 2025, while user numbers declined in early 2026.